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High energy flexible supercapacitors formed via bottom-up infilling of gel electrolytes into thick porous electrodes

Author

Listed:
  • Xiangming Li

    (Xi’an Jiaotong University
    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

  • Jinyou Shao

    (Xi’an Jiaotong University)

  • Sung-Kon Kim

    (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    Chonbuk National University)

  • Chaochao Yao

    (Xi’an Jiaotong University)

  • Junjie Wang

    (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

  • Yu-Run Miao

    (Chonbuk National University)

  • Qiye Zheng

    (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

  • Pengcheng Sun

    (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

  • Runyu Zhang

    (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

  • Paul V. Braun

    (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign)

Abstract

Formation of thick, high energy density, flexible solid supercapacitors is challenging because of difficulties infilling gel electrolytes into porous electrodes. Incomplete infilling results in a low capacitance and poor mechanical properties. Here we report a bottom-up infilling method to overcome these challenges. Electrodes up to 500 μm thick, formed from multi-walled carbon nanotubes and a composite of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene), polystyrene sulfonate and multi-walled carbon nanotubes are successfully infilled with a polyvinyl alcohol/phosphoric acid gel electrolyte. The exceptional mechanical properties of the multi-walled carbon nanotube-based electrode enable it to be rolled into a radius of curvature as small as 0.5 mm without cracking and retain 95% of its initial capacitance after 5000 bending cycles. The areal capacitance of our 500 μm thick poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene), polystyrene sulfonate, multi-walled carbon nanotube-based flexible solid supercapacitor is 2662 mF cm–2 at 2 mV s–1, at least five times greater than current flexible supercapacitors.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiangming Li & Jinyou Shao & Sung-Kon Kim & Chaochao Yao & Junjie Wang & Yu-Run Miao & Qiye Zheng & Pengcheng Sun & Runyu Zhang & Paul V. Braun, 2018. "High energy flexible supercapacitors formed via bottom-up infilling of gel electrolytes into thick porous electrodes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-8, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-04937-8
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04937-8
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